The title of your thread compels me to respond. I of course can't help you with the SMK however our Berger Match VLD have been very successful on big game. I'll gladly send a free 30 minute DVD showing what our Match VLD does when used for hunting. Send an email listing your interest in the DVD and your shipping address to andrea.cobos@bergerbullets.com. For more on this we were recently written up in the August 2007 issue of Handloader.

We do not have a 270 cal bullet right now but will have three different weights made in the next few months.

Regards,
Eric Stecker
Berger Bullets

__________________
To strengthen your shooting skills go to the range.
To strengthen the shooting sports take a non-shooter with you.

Eric,
Thanks for the offer - I have emailed Andrea and look forward to the DVD. I am also keen to know what weights your .270 bullets will come in. It is a very popular cal. in South Africa. I shoot everything non dangerous with mine. It is a Savage 110 action on an Anschutz barrel - wonderful weapon.
Thanks
Dave

JCMS, no experience in .277, but quite a few of us in .308 Win and .300 UM and 7mm (Rem Mag and .280 Rem) and Bergers in .300 WM.

Good results all round, but weight was 168gr up to 220gr.

I've even used A-Max on smaller game in my .300 WM - Blesbuck and Springbuck, with great results.

As you know, not everyone feels the same about it.

I was required to shoot an Eland wounded by another in our party earlier this year at around 15 yards I think it was, with a 210gr Berger (MV 2830 or so). Right on the shoulder - he was dead in seconds. Do I recommend a Berger for something as heavily boned in the forequarters as Eland? No, but it did what was required (that time). I can't tell you how large a pice of bullet (or if all of it) made it to the vitals.

At medium / longer ranges risk of breakup reduces, but hitting heavy shoulder bones remain a risk I'd think. It depends a lot on what you are hunting.

The first 270 cal bullets will be 130 gr, 140 gr and 150 gr. We will likely make lighter and heavier bullets in 270 cal but they will be down the road (a year or more). We have several new bullets coming out over the next twelve months so it will be a while before we can revisit the 270 again.

Regarding close up shots at high MV, we traveled to West Virginia to hunt wild pigs with Richard Mann. Richard is the developer of the Bullet Test TUBE and has tested just about every bullet made. Before we started hunting Richard believed that our bullet would act like any cup and core bullet producing rapid expansion. It has been Richards findings that every bullet (including high weight retaining bullets) start their expansion upon impact.

We shot 5 large wild hogs on that trip. The shots were taken from 20 feet to about 75 yards. Four of the hogs dropped where they were shot. One hog that I shot after it had been spooked ran about 50 feet. We found during the autopsy that this hog had a hole in its heart I could easily slide two fingers into. How it managed to run after the massive amount of internal damage to the vitals surprised everyone. The guides said that they have never seen 5 hogs drop like those that we shot.

To test the VLD further, we set one of the larger hogs up so that we could shoot it right through the shoulder and hip bones. Both shots were taken from 10 inches away and were shot with a 6.5mm 140 gr VLD (it was the highest velocity load we had at the time at just about 3,100 fps). Both shots penetrated through each bone and created wound channels that were 15" and 18" deep. The amount of internal tissue damage was tremendous. (For those of you who have shot a hog in the rear hip area you know how much fun we had doing that particular autopsy)

I certainly don't recommend shooting them in the hip. We wanted to see if the bullet would blow up on the surface and it did not. During this trip we fired shots into the Bullet Test TUBE that Richard brought with him. We found that the VLD is the only bullet that penetrates 1" to 1.5" in the Test TUBE (In animals typical penetration is 2" to 3"). This is a result that Richard did not expect and was the key proof he needed to understand that the Berger Match VLD is in fact usable and very successful for game.

Regards,
Eric

__________________
To strengthen your shooting skills go to the range.
To strengthen the shooting sports take a non-shooter with you.